INDIAN MUSIC FORUM ARCHIVES: Tabla Forum: Info about Tabla Learning

Hi,I am a novice and planning to learn Tabla. Can you suggest best way to go about it, I mean self learning from books/videos or taking classes ?Secondly, any light about good tabla classes in Bay area ( nothern California)

You are fortunate for living in the BAy area. There are several schools I know that teaches tabla. The best would be the Ali Akbar Khan's college of music at San Rafael. They offer the best tabla program in entire California (415) 454-6264. Tabla lesson is also available at UC Berkeley. Call at their music dept. to find out about the class schedule, (510) 642-2678. There is an Indian music school, Bharathi Kalalaya, at Fremont who offer tabla class. Contact Anuradha Suresh at (510) 490-4629.

There must be tons more, if not schools, but individuals who offer tabla lesson up there. You would just need to do some searching.